1.4.8

"To the giant rats…?"

"Where might I find me some boric acid–laced dango? Now that's some poison."

"To the great white whale…?"

"You know, the first guy who comes to mind when I think of the word 'captain' is that good ol' Captain Ahab. Bet he has some fishing hooks."

"…To our most honorable great dragon…?"

"Since this is a fantasy world, I bet they really exist, but man, if I ran into one of those I can guarantee you I wouldn't be able to do anything. But you know, they are really cool, so I do kind of want to see one, but what a contradiction, huh? Those mixed-up feelings of mine can burn in hell!"

"Can't you just say the passwords without having to throw in all that nonsense?! Can you be more irritating?!"

The door to the cellar slammed opened so hard it looked as though it was going to come off its hinges, but Subaru, who expected this, had stepped back and was dealt no damage. Growling in frustration, too tall for the entrance, was the bald giant Rom, whom Subaru had grown used to seeing at this point. His face was red, his blood pressure probably high.

"If you get all angry like that, you'll pop a blood vessel. Even if we had modern medicine, I'd say your situation looks pretty bad."

"If you think it's so bad for me, then don't make me angry! Just who are you anyway?! I'm not supposed to let anyone in today, so scram!"

"Uh… Sorry about that. This guy is actually my customer, so could you please let him in?" said Felt, who had been hiding behind Subaru's back and just peeked out from behind him.

Rom slowly relaxed his shoulders. As Felt looked between a disappointed Rom and a whistling Subaru, she let out a sigh.

"You really have a terrible personality, kid. Without being too mean, it's simply the worst. Anyway, we're coming in, Rom."

As Felt slipped past Rom, still looking down, she entered the loot cellar as if it were her own place.

Rom first looked at Felt for further explanation but was ignored, so he turned his annoyed face toward Subaru.

"She really marches to the beat of her own drummer, huh? Us normal guys just get left behind, am I right?" said Subaru.

"I'd like to start back at square one, where I was first teaching her what different words meant… Anyway, get inside," replied Rom, with the tone of a man who had given up and washed his hands of everything, before shrinking his giant body back away into the cellar.

Subaru followed after Rom into the dusty air of the loot cellar. He tossed a few cautious glances this way and that, but fortunately there was no sign that Elsa or Not-Satella were hiding somewhere inside.

Felt was casually sitting at the bar counter, drinking a glass of milk as if it were her own.

"What? This is the only cold one left. I'm not letting you have it," she said.

"I can't believe you're not the least bit bothered by how shameless you're acting… Hey, old man, I'll just have some alcohol, whatever you've got. Thanks," said Subaru.

"You're one to talk! I'm not sharing with you! You're not getting any, you hear?!" shouted Rom as he ran across the room and rushed behind the counter, creaking the floorboards as he went, trying to hide what looked like his stash.

Rom's overreaction was enough to inspire pity, and Subaru just said, "I'm joking," with a chuckle.

"Well then, old man. We've already wasted a lot of time, so before we get sidetracked, I'd like to get straight to the point."

"I get the feeling we've already gone way off track, but…what's up?"

"Basically, I want you to appraise something. I would like you to put a price on this metia I have here, and guarantee its worth to Felt."

When Rom realized that the conversation was turning to business, his gray eyes turned serious. Old Man Rom looked at Felt, who nodded in confirmation, before turning to look back at Subaru.

Realizing that Rom was wordlessly asking to see the item, Subaru took his cell phone out of his pocket and handed it to Rom. It seemed that the metallic look of the phone was what first caught Rom's eye, and while he ran his fingers over it it looked like a tiny toy in his oversized hands.

"So this is a metia. Even for someone like me, this is my first time seeing one of these…"

"I'm pretty sure this is the only one of its kind in the whole world. Also, it's rather delicate so please be careful with it. If you break it I really have to kill myself, and I'm not joking about that…of course, meaning so I can start over."

Rom spent a while carefully looking over its outward appearance, but then slowly opened the folding phone. Rom had his first surprise as the phone started up and let out a sound, and he got his second surprise when he saw the phone's wallpaper.

"This picture…"

"I thought that this would be a good time to use that one. In order to show you the device's abilities, I put a scene from Felt's day as the wallpaper."

The wallpaper was one of the pictures that Subaru had taken of Felt when he met her in the alley. He picked the one he thought looked the cutest, and given the image quality he thought it was quite nice overall.

Rom looked from the image over at Felt, who was sipping her milk, and said, "Well, you've certainly surprised me. I don't think there's anything else out there that could draw such a perfect picture."

"This is a metia that takes out a slice of time and stores it away. It doesn't even compare with a picture someone has drawn, does it? If you'd like I can take one of you as well."

"I'm interested, but it seems kind of dangerous. It doesn't take any of your life away, does it?"

"No matter what age and no matter what world, it looks like that superstition about photographs persists, huh…?"

Subaru gave a weak smile in return to Rom's reaction, something that seemed like it should be out of the Taisho period, or before, and replied, "Even if I take your picture, you'll easily live until you're eighty or so."

Felt's reaction as she was listening to the conversation was also cute, and so after getting his permission, Subaru took a picture of Rom and showed it to him.

"Hmm…" Rom nodded.

"This is certainly something. If I were to take care of it, in terms of blessed gold coins maybe fifteen…no, I could absolutely get more than twenty for this. I believe it's worth that much."

Rom's business sense sparked; his eyes were shining as he made his appraisal.

While Subaru thought he was unsure how proud he could be to get the seal of approval from someone in the business of selling stolen goods, it certainly did put him at ease. His nostrils flaring with confidence, Subaru turned to Felt.

"Well, there you have it. This is the card I have to play. Like I said, it's worth more than twenty blessed gold coins. So now, I'd like to trade you this for that badge you've got."

"I see you seem to make that face a lot, but it really is annoying."

Apparently unimpressed that everything looked as though it was going according to Subaru's plan, Felt made a face. However, that didn't change the fact that this new information made the deal sound even better to her.

"Well, to be honest, I'm happy that I've got a guarantee that I can turn this metia into cash. It looks like I don't have to doubt you anymore about it being worth twenty blessed gold coins, either. I accept the card you have to play."

"Right?! So anyway, it looks like our negotiations have gone well. It'll be your job to sell it, but I wish you the best of luck! Now that's wrapped up, how about we go off somewhere and have a drink to celebrate our success?"

Subaru quickly walked over to Felt and put out his hand to take the badge, but Felt slowly pushed it back.

"Wait a minute. Why are you in such of a hurry?"

"Life has its limits. You've got to treat every second of it as precious, and it's a shame to waste any—"

"Right, right, enough of that," Felt said, narrowing her red eyes, and with a calm attitude stuck at the heart of her doubts.

"Why do you want this badge in the first place?"